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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27271066">Violet Eyes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAliceCurious/pseuds/NervousAliceCurious'>NervousAliceCurious</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Escape The Night Fandom 4 - Origin Hourglass [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work, Our ETerNity Together</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Backstory, Beginning Trail, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:48:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,695</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27271066</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAliceCurious/pseuds/NervousAliceCurious</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After losing Alice as a baby, complications arise when where she ends up, is not what's expected.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mathilde/Chris</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Escape The Night Fandom 4 - Origin Hourglass [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991230</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Violet Eyes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerInAmsterdam/gifts">SummerInAmsterdam</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Cw: Death, illness. Brief blood mention. Stalking mentions. Neck trauma, ghosts. Zero-sum game referral?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>I take one step into the city.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s clearly been a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-How’d you end up here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last I checked, he’d been in Alice’s mind-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’d seen him when I’d made that promise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Long, long ago-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-Didn’t work out”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He flicks off a shell casing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“. . .Looking for someone”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He snorts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good luck”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I start to walk away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-You sure you don’t want to go back?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nah. . .”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smiles…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’d make things awkward”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“-I think I’ve seen him before”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That man”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nod behind me slightly-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Over there”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chris looks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. That guy”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. . .”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You couldn’t possibly miss him-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>7 ft. tall!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-Is it just me or is he everywhere we go?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I haven’t seen him-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I have-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-If he does anything stupid we’ll shout, we </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>surrounded-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, I know…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’ve been practicing karate for a couple years, as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>911 on our cells-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The first time, he’d been looking distraught.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-I tried to get near, but he vanished.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ever since then. . .</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Coincidentally, that was the same day I found out I was pregnant.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“-Get back, who are you-!??”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I whipped off my bag-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come any closer, and I’ll-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I’m sorry, I just-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was late, and cold, and a year or so later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d been ahead of schedule, and they’d had to cut her out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another child on the way, and I wouldn’t be giving them up without a fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chris was already in the car-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hadn’t been feeling well for a couple weeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I swung it at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“GO AWAY!!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-People in the lot were starting to stare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I thought I imagined the green flare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was gone again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Immuno-compromised since he was a kid. . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The year they turned 5-to-4 was the year I lost him…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An extended stay in the hospital was nothing to a blood clot.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . They need me. I won’t break, now. I can’t lose them-</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“-She’s</span>
  <em>
    <span> what!??”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Vanished from her dorm, they searched the school, they found </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>No proof of struggle, no evidence she’d been planning to leave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They checked her laptop history-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They just found a bunch of stories.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Alice. . .what happened to you?</span>
  </em>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Two years later…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Where are you now?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>If you get this, please contact me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I love you.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Amazing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The house was still untouched.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After all these years……</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I didn’t look a thing like I had back then.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But I bet she’d still know me anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’m not looking forward to the reunion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s not going to like hearing her daughter is someone else’s.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Mahtilde…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I should’ve been more careful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-I didn’t notice her fading away until it was too late……….</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The baby was crying, and not even </span>
  <em>
    <span>I </span>
  </em>
  <span>could calm her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nonono-!!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The magic flowed around a corner-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh </span>
  <em>
    <span>crap-”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Of all the people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I knew instantly when I saw them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When I saw </span>
  <em>
    <span>her.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She may have been human, but she had the heart of a dragon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And she knew it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Violet-blue eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I could see the fire-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh Alice would grow up to have power alright.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it wouldn’t be from the Land of Fiction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And it wouldn’t be from her parents.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In contrast to Mirana’s blonde hair and softness, she was a brunette with an intimidating air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-She saw me-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I quickly ducked out of sight because </span>
  <em>
    <span>how do I explain anything they’re </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>from Reality-</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-A male voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Black hair, amber eyes, I could already tell he wouldn’t live long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His health was disintegrating on the inside, and it showed in his faded irises.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I will admit that I panicked-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I disappeared into the Dream World on them.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>-Wait, no, I have to watch over her-!!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But by the time I remembered that, they had left.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I have to find them-!!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The purple aura.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>-She’s gonna hate me for it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>I knew what I had to do……..</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I tracked her Dream Trail.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was just a plain, white house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No frills, no fanciness at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-Another strike.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was looking worse and worse-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Of all the people she could have ended up with.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She had to end up with the ones who were as </span>
  <em>
    <span>far </span>
  </em>
  <span>from her culture as they could possibly be.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What if……….?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I didn’t dare think it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fact that-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I shook it out of my head-!!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Just watch-</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It’ll be fine.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She’ll grow dissatisfied, and want to come home.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s the way it always is, right?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>No one </b>
  <span>wants to stay in Reality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No one.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yet…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the years went by.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I was-surprised?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They seem happy.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But how?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They lost a fourth of their family.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their school isn’t that great-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl’s practically invisible, and she doesn’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>care.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Neither of them are interested in anyone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Their mother isn’t broken-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s standing in the wind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just...bent.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How are they so </span>
  </em>
  <span>happy….</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No one is ever ‘okay’ here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s just. . .not something that happens.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even the most idealistic gets crushed eventually.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s what I’d heard…………</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s a reason everyone’s caught up in drama. . . . . and they’re not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-The kids aren’t, anyway……</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t-understand.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They go places, and they don’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>need </span>
  </em>
  <span>portals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They just use their minds…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t understand them.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Why on earth would they keep trying and fighting?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What do they have-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“-Hello again?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh no.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why are you-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I quickly disappeared.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She opened the door-</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t understand you at all.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-In fact, I think I was a little afraid of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was nobody like that in Fiction. . . . . . . . . </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She may have pushed, but it was because of that they grew louder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>……..More willing to speak their minds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or at least, more willing to avoid being sucked into toxic crowds…..</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alice’s skin had turned thicker than rock.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-I resented her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sounds unbelievable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Me?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hating someone like that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But if you’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>seen</span>
  </em>
  <span> her-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If you’d seen Mathilde, knowing what I knew, you probably would have too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> She would be the reason her daughter could never be Mirana’s or the King’s again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d passed on her traits to her daughter, that’s right. . . . . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was hers now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Darker blonde hair and eyes-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d left behind dreaming dragonfire in the child’s heart, no fiction left to be seen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And the day she died, would be the day it </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally </span>
  </em>
  <span>went out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Leave it to me to screw this up-</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was </span>
  <em>
    <span>no way </span>
  </em>
  <span>I could get close to her now!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had a certain contempt for all men, and a certain distaste for love.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even her kind nature was different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had few words.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I didn’t have a clue what I was supposed to do-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>How do you tell someone who’s not interested in being a Princess-that she </span>
  <em>
    <span>is </span>
  </em>
  <span>one!?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s liable to not accept anything I have to explain-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’s idealism mixed with cynic.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-If she ever got stalked, they’d probably receive a hammer to the head.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s so rampant in Fiction-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s like an epidemic.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Used to being free, and uncontrolled-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I can’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>imagine</span>
  </em>
  <span> how she’s gonna possibly be able to cope.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’ve been lucky enough to never have one. . .</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On top of that, I can </span>
  <em>
    <span>sense </span>
  </em>
  <span>that the fire’s coming up to the surface.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Little by little, day by day-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, it’s going to </span>
  <b>explode.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then what?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I doubt she’ll identify with </span>
  <em>
    <span>any </span>
  </em>
  <span>world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We’ll have lost her-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“-What are you doing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-!??”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-I was caught unawares.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her brother had snuck up on me-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I go to leave-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wait-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m new”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I don’t make any moves-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Why would I?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I know she’s staring at me from the window…..</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mathilde will be out here in an instant if I do anything stupid-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And she won’t </span>
  <b>
    <em>stop </em>
  </b>
  <span>until I’m firmly kicked off the property.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“. . .What’s this place like?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He gives me the side-eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They named him ‘Cadmium’, I think…..</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s nice, I guess. . .”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-That’s good to hear……….”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I look down the street.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bus just left-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“-It’s really quiet”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t mind. I have card friends”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh. That’s cool”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-That solves part of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I know Alice has friends, but she kinda is in a weird spot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-They were friends before she came around really, or she was just too old-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They still loved her, though…..</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’s never lonely.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I don’t understand how or why-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Must be the same energy that keeps her mother on her own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mostly-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or maybe she’s mutated into someone even Reality doesn’t recognize.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“-You guys wish you were ever loved by fictional characters?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-The look on his face is ‘huh’.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s an energy in him, too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A yellowish fire.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-It’s gotten him as well.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“.........?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-He doesn’t comprehend it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That means she won’t, either. . . . . .</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And then I see it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Past the fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’ve invented their own.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>I’ve never...seen it before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re both. . . . .strange.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fiction and Reality are bound up in them in a way that only half-makes sense.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Their ‘fight’ stage didn’t last very long.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s an odder peace from thereafter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-And something. . .weird has started to happen to me.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The peace I was talking about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Is recurring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No ‘imminent threat’ looms over their heads…..</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No one gushes or pets them or-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Does anything else in a royal, grand manner. . . .I’m not-getting it right, but you have an idea of what I’m trying to say here?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s more...subtle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They don’t say ‘I love you often’, because they already know it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They do give hugs and stuff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But mom’s not watching them sleep, or getting in the bed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I keep wondering when and where all the extra is going to come from.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It never appears.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If there </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>hiccups, they’re rare, and self-resolving.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I feel like I’m...</span>
  <em>
    <span>intruding.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Giving them something to worry about when they </span>
  <em>
    <span>should </span>
  </em>
  <span>have nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I know Mirana and the King are worried (whenever he’s not traveling somewhere, which is basically 99.9% of the time).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But……</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If I don’t go….</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And the kids start to realize (which they will, because they’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>smart-)</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’ll be </span>
  <b>me </b>
  <span>they’re afraid of.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s like a blow to my chest-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’ve become that!?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-I highly doubt the Cursed God will even recognize her anymore, much less be interested in someone so mentally out of his reach…….</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I’ve seen her mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know </span>
  </em>
  <span>it’ll be working overtime to protect itself-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She never forgets what she’s ever loved.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That creates a Mindscape.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>-And I </span>
  <em>
    <span>could </span>
  </em>
  <span>go back in time to change it….but why would I!??</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>happy.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re. . .happy…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Life is simple.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And you can...be happy?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If it’s simple……?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And I </span>
  <b>like it.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>And so I left her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I left them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I went home…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And I didn’t meet her again until a few short years later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And by then….</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The only reason I knew who she was at all was because of the bright-blue flame.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>I lift my fist to knock on the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It opens.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-Oh God, she recognizes me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tired, purple eyes-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-Where’s my daughter”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I swallow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My lungs. . .freeze up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because I can see her brother eavesdropping-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It-It’s a long story-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her folded arms and steel stare are all the answer I need.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>.                                .                            .</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I finish explaining.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I can’t read her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What is she thinking?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-Now I know where Alice gets it from…….</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Is she alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s. . .okay-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>For now.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She looks like ten years has been lifted from her shoulders.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can I see her-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I don’t know what to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I don’t want to start a custody battle-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-What have I done?</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>All I do is get myself in trouble….</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it was the right thing to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wasn’t it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alice’s eyes are wide in her head when I tell her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-She said she wants to see you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I!??”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, I can take you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please!!??”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every word just drives the knife in further.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She must be so worried-!!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She is.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But. . .Mirana-</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well how could anyone account for this?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Some luck?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or would Alice...have turned out like she did anyway?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Birds of a feather sometimes flock together, and all that-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her own magic couldn’t handle it so it put her with someone who could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Good she made it better-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bad she made it...better. . . . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Envy….please…………?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>. . . . . .I can’t say no-!!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-Yes”, I finally concede.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll take you to-!?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-She hugs me-!??</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Right out of the blue-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you!!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I realize she’s. . .crying….</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you so, so much-!!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My throat closes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I just hug her back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(*)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Alice-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mom-!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We fly halfway across the kitchen to hug her!!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then all three of us cry-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Missed her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I </span>
  <em>
    <span>missed </span>
  </em>
  <span>her-!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I missed you mom-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Missed you too-” her brother says-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I just-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Can’t believe this is really happening!!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s been- </span>
  <em>
    <span>so </span>
  </em>
  <span>long-!!!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Please don’t leave again-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She hugs me tighter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I won’t, I won’t-!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We finally pull back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Footsteps.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Um.   .   .”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Envy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked similar enough that I could tell it was him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But when the green in his eyes goes away. . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The resemblance fades.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If I may-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-Can you stop her from getting kidnapped again-!??”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His lack of response-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Please?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-I’ll do my best”, he replies hoarsely, after a time, “But-I think she’s more than capable of rescuing herself...better than I ever could”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She smiles up at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’ll all do our best, mom”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-Yeah two years with no word was really scary”, Cadmium adds.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’s a little teary-eyed as well-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m so sorry….” Alice mumbles….”I let a lot of things fall to the wayside-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her voice breaks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I know-and I’m not mad”, I promise, “Only next time, please send us word”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-I’ll try. . .” she sniffles, “If it’s not too dangerous. . . . . .”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What were you going to ask?” I turn back to him-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-It’s just that. . .I was thinking, you’re missing someone-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My heart thuds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s right. . . . . . . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You...can-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t. . .but I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can </span>
  </em>
  <span>persuade him to come here? Maybe?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s been so long-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lets out a breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay”.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He closes his eyes. . .presses a finger to his forehead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Faint purple glows in the usual seafoam.  .  .  .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A faint shadow mists from the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Takes shape-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I feel the tears roll down my face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“....Chris??”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘Mathilde….’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I step-closer-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I touch his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-Look at you beans!” he exclaims, “You’ve all grown up-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cadmium’s jaw drops-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alice’s smile softens.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You went away for a while”, he says to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know. . . .and I have to go back……..my friends need help”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wish you good luck”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He ushers the kids near-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m proud of you both”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He hugs them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They hug him-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’m wiping tears from my eyes now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lets them go.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I can’t stay any longer…..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I nod-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>We share one last kiss.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I love you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know”.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I watch him fade through a sheen of tears.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>(*)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thank you….”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He just bobs his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-You could’ve done that with the ghosts the whole time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not while they were in the jars”, he answers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah. . .”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s been hanging around you for a while...did you notice him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alice looks. . .regretful.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t……..”</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>-That...went better than I thought it would.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’s sleeping on the couch here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just for the night. . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though not much has happened in a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-I grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Tempt fate, much?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>I knock on myself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alice’s mom is upstairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So is her brother.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nary a sound in the house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thank goodness-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One loose end taken care of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I just wish. . . . . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sigh………</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She could have this all the time….</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>I don’t want it to be the last moment they ever spend together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-But I guess. . .I’m just asking for trouble……..</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We haven’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>found </span>
  </em>
  <span>Fiction yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And we still have </span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>him </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>to deal with-</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I wasn’t sure whether or not to leave it out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I didn’t want to worry Mathilde-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>-I also didn’t want her to go Mama Bear on him, either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Darn </span>
  <em>
    <span>Calvin.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If there was only a way we could keep him from coming back. . .</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>My luck is horrible, and nothing </span>
  <em>
    <span>we </span>
  </em>
  <span>do ever works. . .</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only person </span>
  <em>
    <span>I </span>
  </em>
  <span>can think of that had </span>
  <b>any </b>
  <span>luck at all, </span>
  <b>
    <em>period, </em>
  </b>
  <span>is-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-I hear a sound.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Is that a-?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>I’m leaning on the wall, was I just-</span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>spotted!?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A shadow, creeping towards her-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I lunge, and wrap vines around their neck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something stabs me in the jugular--</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I did it-</p></blockquote></div></div>
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